Conventional wisdom has it that since the departure
of drummer Bill Berry in 1997 after his aneurism,
R.E.M. have been something of a three-legged dog,
the law of diminishing returns operating as the band
became ever more bland with each subsequent release,
Up and Reveal, reaching its nadir with 2004’s
Around The Sun. Pre-release gossip had it
that Accelerate represents a back-to-basics return
to form, especially as many of the songs were road
tested in Dublin’s Olympia last summer. While
it’s not an unqualified success, it easily trumps
anything else the band has done in the past ten years,
with its echoes of their pre-mainstream high watermarks,
Lifes Rich Pageant and Document.
They sound urgent and reenergised, Buck’s guitar
lines tearing out of the speakers, Stipe’s lyrics
motivated – as seemingly every American rocker’s
are at the moment – by disgust at the damage
the dire administration they are living under has
done. They seem to be bending over backwards to please:
lyrics are even reproduced on the sleeve, which would
never have happened in the old days of murky mixes.
‘Until The Day Is Done’ is the most pessimistic
burst of anger: The battle’s been lost,
the war is not won/An addled republic, a bitter refund/The
business first flat earthers licking their wounds/The
verdict is dire, the country’s in ruins,
while ‘Houston’ deals with a Katrina survivor
trying to build a new life: If the storm doesn’t
kill me/The government will. These agitpop, state-of-the-nation
statements are balanced by the patent silliness of
closer ‘I’m Gonna DJ’, a first cousin
of ‘Shiny Happy People’. All in all, 34
minutes of refreshingly fierce yet uncomplicated enjoyment.